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Renewal Retention Increase at Centralized Communities
Physical Occupancy Increase at Centralized Communities
Centralized Staffing Ratio
CAF Management is a Frisco, Texas-based multifamily operator with over 24,000 units under management across Texas, Arizona, and Oklahoma. As a value-driven company that operates by the philosophy “People Matter. Performance Counts.”, CAF constantly strives to introduce innovative approaches to management and new technology that amplifies the efforts of the exceptional team members that staff their communities. They brought this mindset to the table with them when trying to find a solution to onsite staffing challenges that impacted service delivery.
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As many operators are all too familiar with, hiring, developing, and retaining top talent is more challenging today than ever before. For CAF, continued growth across a diverse asset base and markets reinforced the importance of structuring work intentionally to best support onsite teams without sacrificing tenant relations. Rather than asking property teams to absorb expanding administrative responsibilities alongside resident-facing service, CAF made a deliberate decision to centralize core operational workflows.
By establishing Central Operations & Technology (COT), CAF leadership created a platform to marry their “People Matter. Performance Counts.” ethos with a strong centralized technology solution. This arrangement streamlined and standardized processes, elevated performance standards, and brought high-performing team members into a specialized hub designed to support the field, reduce administrative burden, and enhance the resident experience at scale.
In June 2025, CAF launched Central Operations & Technology (COT), a centralized team of specialists designed to absorb the administrative workload that had historically lived with the assistant manager role. Instead of relying on generalists at each site to juggle paperwork alongside resident-facing responsibilities, CAF concentrated core admin workflows – applications and approvals, lease paperwork, renewals processing, move-ins/move-outs, payment postings, and policy-driven exceptions – within a single, specialized team.
CAF initially staffed COT with 11 team members supporting 44 communities, and appointed a Director of Centralization to formalize standards, operating rhythms, and performance expectations as the model scaled. To ensure consistency across communities and owner requirements, EliseCRM serves as the shared platform – capturing conversations, tasks, and exceptions in one place and routing them to the appropriate team.
CAF’s mission is simple: every resident and every touchpoint gets timely attention. That promise is powered by EliseAI.
CAF’s operating model combines onsite teams, a centralized COT team, and EliseAI to deliver fast service at scale. Here’s how the model works in practice:
EliseAI handles high-volume, routine conversations instantly – including after-hours – so prospects don’t go cold and residents aren’t left waiting. As a result, 85.0% of resident and prospect communications receive a response within 8 hours across all channels, with most resolved the same day. From October through December 2025, “Harper” (CAF’s virtual assistant) supported leasing at scale by sending 170K leasing messages with a 90.0% automation rate, scheduling 7,044 tours, facilitating 4,500 applications, and supporting 996 leases signed.
When a request needs a person—because it requires judgment, policy interpretation, or a non-standard resolution – Harper creates a handoff with full context in EliseCRM, CAF’s shared workspace for centralized execution. EliseCRM captures conversation history across channels and routes work into structured task queues, giving both COT and onsite teams clear visibility into status, ownership, and resident/prospect context across every channel.
COT owns the administrative workflows – renewals, move-in/move-out processing, payments and delinquencies – while onsite teams remain responsible for leasing execution (tours and walk-ins, prospect follow-up, closing activity, answering calls) and the in-person admin touchpoints – move-ins, key handoffs, and resident walk-ins. In practice, COT has absorbed a meaningful share of human escalations; they resolved 40.0% of all resident AI escalations, including 71.0% of collections escalations for their properties.
With routine questions handled by AI and back-office work absorbed by COT, onsite teams have more capacity for the in-person moments that drive leasing performance and resident trust.
For residents, that means easy questions get immediate answers and tougher issues receive a thoughtful, same-business-day response from the right CAF team member.
CAF evaluated results over multi-month windows to avoid seasonal noise and ‘one-month’ bias. Across Jan–Jun vs Jul–Dec 2025, COT-supported communities improved on core owner outcomes while scaling consistent service delivery.
Portfolio Outcomes (Jan–Jun vs Jul–Dec 2025):
Resident feedback echoed the service story behind the results: responsiveness and prompt issue resolution were repeatedly cited as reasons residents plan to renew and stay.
Critics worry centralization removes the human touch, but CAF’s thoughtful application of this operating model demonstrates the opposite: AI amplifies human capacity, and their Central Operations & Technology team ensures consistent follow-through. Onsite staff are free to focus on the in-person moments that convert tours, prevent move-outs, and build trust. Meanwhile, residents experience faster answers and fewer missed handoffs. Sentiment improves because people feel supported, and the numbers follow suit—what could be a better example of “People Matter. Performance Counts.” than the outcomes CAF has achieved with EliseAI + centralization?
Jason Geer is President of Acquisitions at CAF Capital Partners, bringing over 30 years of experience in real estate debt and equity transactions, investment management, and portfolio operations. He leads sourcing, underwriting, and execution of new investment opportunities, helping drive strategic growth across the platform. Throughout his career, Jason has been involved in more than $20 billion in transactions across hundreds of deals. He holds a B.B.A. in Real Estate and Finance from Southern Methodist University.
Christi Nelson is Vice President at CAF Management, bringing over 20 years of multifamily experience and a proven ability to lead teams, improve property performance, and support growth across markets. She joined CAF in 2017 as a Property Manager after spending 13 years at Tipton Group, where she advanced from Leasing Agent to Property Manager. At CAF, Christi has been promoted five times, from Property Manager to District Manager, Regional Manager, Area Vice President, and now Vice President. She's worked in nearly every onsite position, giving her a grounded understanding of team dynamics, resident experience, and day-to-day operations. She also holds a Real Estate License and has been promoted five times in nine years, an accomplishment she's especially proud of.
Josie Powers is the Director of Centralization at CAF Management with over 10 years of multifamily experience. In her current role, she oversees a centralized team of Property Account Managers who support operations across the portfolio, managing key functions including delinquency oversight, application processing, and close-out reporting. She's held almost every position at CAF, including Leasing, Assistant Manager, Property Manager, Analyst, Financial Analyst, and Regional Manager before stepping into her current role. Josie has received multiple awards during her time at CAF, including Assistant Manager of the Year (2017 and 2018), Top Performer (2019), CAF Winter Storm Hero (2021), and Brooke Hendry's Challenge Coin.
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